Mater et Magistra

The newest issue is filled with wonderful reads! 

In the words of my friend Nancy:

I just had the pleasure of reading the recent issue of mater et magistra (mother and teacher).  The theme was "JOY" and the articles all reflected a beautiful philosophy of experiencing and living joyfully in our respective domestic churches.  I have been subscribing to this publication for a couple years now and eagerly look forward to its arrival in the mailbox.  

 

mater et magistra is a publication that focuses on "educating the heart and mind in the Catholic home."  This month's edition included articles by Melissa Wiley, Kate Cammarata, Laura Berquist, Alicia Van Hecke, Mary Ellen Barrett, Andrew Hagerty and our own, Ana Braga-Henebry.  Margot Davidson is the new editor.

 

The unit study this month focused on "The Saints of Advent" and included projects for St. Nicholas, St. Juan Diego, and St. Lucia. The unit studies include booklists, craft/art ideas, symbols associated each saint, and recipes.  The idea for a St. Nicholas lapbook has inspired me to make this one of our Advent projects this year!  

 

There is still time to subscribe and receive the Fall 2008 issue.  Please refer to the link listed:

 

Magazine site: 

http://materetmagistramagazine.org/

 

Joyfully,

Nancy

Mater & Magistra Summer Issue

As it is usual with Mater & Magistra, this is one excellent issue!

The cover piece by Joseph Pearce is timely and fascinating, revealing the catholicity of Schumacher, the great environmental author of the seventies. In my comment to his similar article in the NCRegister I added that I like the idea of pro-life ad locally-grown-foods bumper stickers side-by-side--an apparent paradox that should go hand in hand.

Read on for ideas on homeschooling on a small budget, with lots of free resources lists, and also for a piece on the Ignatius Press excellent Critical Editions. And more... an Andrew Pudewa article, Unit Study on the Civil War, etc!

Zita The Spacegirl by Ben Hatke

Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, 2011 First Second Books, 192 pages

Ben Hatke, known to Catholic homeschoolers for his illustrations in many familiar titles such as Angel in the Waters and Once Upon a time Saints (Bethlehem Books) among other things, has written a full length "graphic novel". Entitled Zita the Spacegirl, his comic book tells the many adventures of a likeable and good girl, Zita, who is accidentally thrown into a space odyssey of sorts. To help her friend Joseph, Zita bravely faces all sorts of adventures!

I have loved Ben’s art since I first encountered it and I was very excited to get a hold of this book as this seems to be what he loves to do best! I grew up with nice comic books, free from the reputation they suffer here in the United States (and I must add deservedly so for the most part), and it is a delight to have my children enjoy Zita as I enjoyed Tintin, Asterix and others.

We fell in love with Zita for many reasons: first of all, Zita is good, brave, kind and cute! Then the characters created by Ben are unique and original and hilarious! The story is fast-paced and very adventurous! Shortly after we got the book my 11 year old was reading in the car with a friend and I had to chuckle at their comments and excitement over their joint reading. The art is wonderful: Ben is a fantastic, talented and solid artist. I must add that the reviews from major sources of this new graphic novel have been very positive—Kirkus calls it “out of this world!”—and I think well-deserved!

In preparing this review I chatted with Ben over the internet and asked him a few questions that will relevant to Mater & Magistra readers. He was fun to work with, and watch the next issue of Mater & Magistra for it!

Article for Mater & Magistra

I don't usually do this,  and truthfully I don't even know if I am supposed to do it, but here it is, an article I just wrote for the national Catholic home-school periodical. I enjoyed writing it, and it ties with the last post. It will be edited and crunched for space for sure, and perhaps it's a good thing. And a new and decent title will be found by the excellent Editor. Mater & Magistra is in its last year and it is sad. I will miss writing for them immensely.

My husband's love for poetry and how it enriches our family

I may have written my masters thesis on translating poetry, but my husband Geoff, the scientist, is the poetry man of the house.

Geoff's love for poetry showed itself to me very early in our relationship. Our graduate school dates, limited to public spaces and lack of money, were made up for the most part of walking and sitting on park benches or lawns and talking. He splurged sometimes and took me to the neighborhood Chinese joint. Oooh! I felt like a queen and we somehow made those dinners last hours, what with choosing between rice and lo-mein and sipping slowly the two Tsingtaos.

He wasn't then Catholic. But he asked me if I knew the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. I looked at him blankly. A Jesuit, Catholic, British poet? (Even since then there has been very little of Hopkins translated or talked about in my native country.) No, I hadn't heard of it. Geoff went to tell me about the great, suffering poet whose work he so admired. If someone would have asked me then, I would have certainly answered: "Yes, this guy will read poems to our numerous children one day. He is the one I have been looking for!" I am glad no one did ask me that. Perhaps Geoff would have run away as fast as he could, had he known my castles in the air.

Fast forward a few years: we may not have had "numerous" children yet, but he was already reading poetry to the oldest of our children. Our oldest son remembers dad's English classes at home to the children of family friends: he can still recite William Blake's "Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright...." But it was our second child who showed early literary and poetic tendencies, and from early on she greatly enjoyed when her dad read aloud a Robert Service poem.

It wasn't planned, or weekly. It was sporadic as sporadic can be. Depending on the climate, the overall state of things inside the home, and the conversation topic over coffee, my good husband would spring up from the chair and go to the exact location on our wall-to-wall bookshelf and retrieve the very volume he sought. And he would read aloud, slowly and clearly, not only from Robert Service but also Shakespeare, Tennyson, Longfellow, Robert Browning, Edgar Alan Poe, Christina Rossetti, William Blake, John Donne, and even some fun nonsense from Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. The colorful, multi-sized volumes, some old and in poor condition, would enjoy lights and smells of kitchen and hearth room held in the hands of a good father. Once in a while he would grab a volume of his favorite poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins. Reading Hopkins isn't easy. He certainly doesn't do it perfectly. But he reads it with a heart of admiration and love, and it shows through his recitations. And, of course, Hopkins' sprung rhythm and amazing language speaks for itself:

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; 5
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; 10
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Was it way over the heads of the kids? Certainly. Such is life: our road is towards the unreachable Perfection, and yet we trod, everyday. They may not understand, but children are somehow awed and inspired by greatness. It gives them a longing for greater things. Read them great poetry when they are very young, and they will not settle for poetic mediocrity later in life: they will know there is better elsewhere!

In our third son's high school years my husband offered a one-year course in Poetry to our homeschool group and several of their friends enjoyed the opportunity to study poetry together. I wrote a course description:

Poetry in the English Language

Poetry has been a lifelong passion of Dr. Henebry!
In this course we will explore the riches of poetry in the English language.
The text will be "Immortal Poems of the English Language", a splendid anthology by Oscar Williams of 150 British and American poets spanning 600 years. Emphasis will be on understanding the poems, how they work, how they sound, and what they say.

During that course, my teen son would say that "Dad should have been a Literature professor, not a scientist!" He greatly enjoyed that weekly hour dedicated to the study of poetry, around a round table in a library classroom. My husband attended a Great Books program college, but during graduate school he did not take a single Humanities course. His passion for poetry come from his love for literature and art, and from his high school days.

I find poetry at once beautiful and difficult. The meaning-laden verses, especially in English, seem obscure to me often times. Even under this disadvantage I have been enormously thankful, as a wife and mother, for this role my husband has played in our home. It wasn't done perfectly. Little if anything is done perfectly in our home, most probably like anyone else's home. But as Chesterton so famously opined: "if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly."

New Periodical for Catholic Homeschoolers!

Heart and Mind has been my favorite Catholic Homeschool periodical for years... it is so exciting to share the news that Margot Davidson of Hillside Education has taken up the project of bringing it back to life!

The new name is Mater and Magistra-- and the new site will have a grand opening very soon!

Please vote!

We are very small at Mater & Magistra... but we are holding at 10% against big national magazines such as America... take a look! Please vote! We know we don't have a chance against Magnificat for example, but every vote gives us visibility! We can vote everyday until March 15, click here and scroll down to vote! Then vote for some of your other favorite Catholic publications as well!

A writing day

It's raining today... and I have been writing about gardening for Mater & Magistra... here are some of the Tasha Tudor illustrations I scanned for the article from an old little volume I own, and then a picture of what is out of my big window near the computer. Inspiration!

Board games

Lines of shapes and colors, interwoven in a Scrabble manner, and the familiar colorful train cars spanning the country in search of maximum points: these were our Holidays' games. While Ticket to Ride has become an old favorite, Qwirkle is new for us and are greatly enjoying it!

I took the pictures for an article on family games I just sent in to Mater & Magistra, due next issue.

Trying to catch deadlines

Just finished a cover article entitled A completed homeshool journey for Mater & Magistra, and am now working on a children's play on the life of Saints Benedict and Scholastica.

I love to write! Especially when it is sandwiched between sessions of garden work.

Where Number Seven meets... Ben Hatke!

A day to remember!! Husband drove us to Ann Arbor where Ben Hatke was doing a book signing... I "met" him long ago when I interviewed him for Mater & Magistra... and the kids loved his books from the first Zita... especially Number Seven who has been SO inspired by his wonderful art!

Gerard Manley Hopkins in Portuguese!

I'm writing an article today for Mater & Magistra and I had to research some poetry... and I wondered if this poet has some of his work translated into Portuguese... and I found the most beautiful translation! I admit Hopkins' poetry is very difficult for me. I find that reading the translations in my native tongue, my Língua-Mãe, actually lifts a veil from his poetry. 

Now this is the kind of find that makes my day! I include two below. I found them here.

PARAGEM-PARAÍSO
 Uma noviça toma o céu
          Quis ir para um lugar
                Onde não falte fonte,
      Nem grasse gelo áspero e bifronte;
           Só lírios para olhar.
            Pedi para ficar
                  Onde o vento não ouse,
      Silente, a verde vaga ao porto pouse;
            Longe, o clamor do mar.

HEAVEN-HAVEN / A nun takes the veil
I have desired to go / Where springs not fail, / To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail / And a few lilies blow. / / And I have asked to be / Where no storms come, / Where the green swell is in the havens dumb, / And out of the swing of the sea.

A grandeza de Deus

A grandeza de Deus o mundo inteiro a admira.
    Em ouro ou ouropel faísca o seu fulgor;
    Grandiosa em cada grão, cada limo em óleo amor-
Tecido. Mas por que não temem sua ira?
Gerações vêm e vão; tudo o que gera, gira
    E gora em mercancia; em barro, em borra de labor;
    E ao homem mancha o suor, o sujo, a sujeição; sem cor
O solo agora é; nem mais, solado, o pé o sentira.
E ainda assim a natureza não se curva;
    Um límpido frescor do ser das coisas vaza;
E quando a última luz o torvo Oeste turva
    Ah, a aurora, ao fim da fímbria oriental, abrasa –
Porque o Espírito Santo sobre a curva
   Terra com alma ardente abre ah! a asa alva.

God’s grandeur
The world is charged with the grandeur of God. / It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; / It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil / Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod? / Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; /  And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil; /And wears man`s smudge and shares man`s smell: the soil / Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod. / / And for all this, nature is never spent; /    There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; / And though the last lights off the black West went /  Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs – / Because the Holy Ghost over the bent /  World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Winter Issue soon!

From the Mater & Magistra blog, written by Margot Davidson, Hillside Education publisher:

Our winter issue is all about sports and activities. It will be mailed to subscribers next week. Here's what's included:

Cover: Keeping Sport Healthy for Kids and Families by Matt Davidson, PhD
Feature 1: The Sporting Life by Mary Ellen Barrett
Feature 2: Let Them Play: Everybody Wins in the Fields of Homeschooling by Ana Braga-Henebry and MacBeth Derham
Feature 3: As Asian Road to Catholic Virtues (Karate) by Michelle Rioux

Departments:
Literature Chat: Evangelizing, Manga Style by Mary Gildersleeve
Liturgical Year: Baking Through Lent by Lara Pennell
Spiritual Reflection: Building Character Through Discernment and Planning of Service and Activities by Belinda Mooney
Reviews
Parting Glass: Rose in Winter, a poem by Lisa Salinas

I have wanted to do a feature on sports and homeschooling for some time. And I have long mulled over a quote from my brother-in-law (who writes the cover story): Studies have shown that sports only serve as character building situations when character building is the intention of the sports program. Love this quote from Pope Pius XII:

“Sport, properly directed, develops character, makes a man courageous, a generous loser, and gracious victor; it refines the senses, gives intellectual penetration, and steels the will to endurance. It is not merely a physical development then. Sport, rightly understood, is an occupation of the whole man, and while perfecting the body as an instrument of the mind, it also makes the mind itself a more refined instrument for the search and communication of truth and helps man to achieve that end to which all others must be subservient, the service and praise of his Creator." ” (Pope Pius XII Sport at the Service of the Spirit, July 1945)

Our Spring issue will focus on poetry and is shaping up nicely.

Be sure to renew and ask your friends to subscribe so we can stay in print!

Eight Things Meme

I am writing a piece for the winter issue of Mater & Magistra magazine and looking back in the blog I bumped into this post.

Eight Things Meme 

I was tagged by Karen...

Let's see:

1. I am number seven in my family, and I have loved through the years meeting other "number sevens". My great friend Ginger, also a number seven, threw me a "lucky number seven" baby shower when I was expecting Number Seven.

2. I don't really like oranges. Or apples. Or grapes. Not a fruit person. Don't like blueberries, blackberries, melons or cherries. I do like homegrown strawberries, love raspberries, and bananas are OK.

3. My dad's dad was a Portuguese Navy officer who first sailed to Rio in the ship that accompanied the first South Atlantic flight of Gago Coutinho, who also invented the aeronautical sextant. There is a street in Rio named after him. In Rio, my grandpa met my grandmother... and the rest is history.

4. I would never fly again if I could help it.

5. I do not drive on limited access highways. I am glad google maps now offer an alternative-routes option.

6. I don't need alarm clocks. Never did. If an alarm clock is set in my room, I wake up before it rings. I have always enjoyed waking up early.

7. When I was growing up, my nine siblings and mother sang in our own family choir. We practiced weekly all year and gave annual recitals. We even sang on TV once. Some people called us the Brazilian Von Trapps.

8. I can raise one eyebrow.

Rules: "For this meme, each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog." 

 I am re-posting it this time I am tagging Candise and Jannell.

Please vote!

As many of you know I am on the editorial board of Mater & Magistra, the only Catholic Homeschooling magazine--we made it as a finalist for the About.com national Catholic readers choice awards! Please vote!

Go here to vote. Thanks!

Two arrivals in the mail

We love advent calendars, we love pop-up, and we love Maite Roche! So we knew this adorable Advent calendar would be a hit.

The latest issue of Mater & Magistra also arrived, and I just finished the beautiful and resourceful cover article!

On Husband and his love for Poetry

With permission from publisher Margot Davidson, I am sharing my (very brief and imperfect) article in the current issue of the national Catholic homeschool periodical Mater & Magistra that is sadly in its last year of existence. Enjoy!

A chance for a free subscription!

mater et magistra is sponsoring Maureen's upcoming talk: 

How to Teach Art and Music Appreciation with Real Books Wednesday March 4th at 7:00 Pm CST

We will be giving away TWO subscriptions to the magazine at the end of the talk to registered attendees.

Webinars are online seminars where you can interact with the speaker in the privacy of your own home. You can see and hear the speaker, see visual aids such as Power Point presentations, as well as chat with the speaker and other participants. This new technology is both fun and informative. Check http://tinyurl.com/bezefc 

Literature isn't just for reading! You can teach math, science, language arts, and more using living books. This is the second in a series of three talks on the topic of teaching through real books.   

Do you have a love for beautiful art and music? Would you like to share that love with your children? Would you like to learn about all of the beautiful books available for children and young adults? Do you yearn for uplifting books that not only teach but help to create a joy for learning? If so, this is the talk for you.  Maureen will bring lots of books with her for show and tell. You'll leave this online seminar loaded with book titles, fresh ideas, and practical tips. You won't want to miss it!   

Maureen is the author of For the Love of Literature published by Ecce Homo Press, available from http://hillsideeducation.com/.

Preparing a review

I have been coloring this since I bought it for goddaughter Marguerite for Christmas--my plan is to finish it by Easter and send it to her. I have been using watercolor pencils. Now I am writing a review for it for the next issue for Mater & Magistra. Will post. (Can you tell I am enjoying it?)

WInter '11 issue of Mater & Magistra

Alongside its usual beautiful cover, the winter issue revolves around the theme of Boys. In the review section I wrote about our dear Tintin, and I also included Number One's review of one of his favorite books! This is timely since another of his favorite Rosemary Sutcliff's books, The Eagle of the Ninth, is right now a major motion picture! Our teens have already enjoyed it with their friends.

Mater & Magistra Blog Offer!

Check it out out at the magazine's companion blog!